Jeremy Corbyn’s first days in office were always going to offer some predictable hurdles. So much so that one suspects the outrage over “anthemgate”, much like obituaries for anyone over 70, has been lined up ever since he emerged as frontrunner for the title of Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition. By refusing to sing “God Save The Queen” at yesterday’s Battle of Britain Memorial, Corbyn appears to have interpreted that title literally. But in fact, his stance regarding that particular song has a long and illustrious political history, a history crucial to the rise of democracy as we know it.
Ironically, “God Save The Queen” (or, as was more usual until 1837, “God Save The King”), was originally a Jacobite drinking song, sung in secret in the years after 1688 by those loyal to the exiled Stuart dynasty. Fifty years later, what had started as a Scottish “traitors’” song was rediscovered and repurposed in praise of the Georgian monarchy. Like “Rule, Britannia!”, what we now know as an expression of loyalty thus began life as an expression of dissent.
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